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Which program is the best between 3D Studio Max, Lightwave 6.5 and Maya? I have heard a lot of stuff like "Lucasart used Lightwave 4 or 5 for the Star wars remakes, now are you gonna buy it or what?" or "More than half of all game developers out there uses 3D Studio max, and it is compatible with OpenGL too?". I don''t know very much about Maya, is it good?
A friend of mine who is a hobby-modeller using Max himself said "Geez! If I had Maya...".
Why am I asking? Well I can only get one of them right? And they are VERY expensive, and also I can probably also only learn one at the while. It feels stupid learning Lightwave if you know you are gonna change to Max...
Anyway, the reason I posted it here is because I directly assosicate "NeHe" to the word 3d-guru
thanx in advance
/Sebastian Jensen

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"Best" is a real subjective term. Of the three, Maya is the one with the steepest learning curve, most power and features, and highest price tag.. by a lot.

3DS Max is the most popular for a lot of reasons (and most of what I know about it is third hand, I''ve never used it) - it''s powerful, very reasonably priced for what it does, and by far the program with the most 3rd party support and the most information available .

I personally like LightWave (although I haven''t used 6.0 or 6.5), but it''s because it was the first 3-D program I learned. But, it''s got a pretty hefty pricetag, a pretty steep learning curve (both because it does a lot, and because a lot of the UI design concepts go back to the Amiga). I also like it because I''ve used it on NT boxes, Macs and SGI (Irix) machines and the experience on the three machines was similar enough not to matter.

But that''s not to say I wouldn''t like 3DS if I used it, or that I wouldn''t like Maya if I could afford it. For me, Maya would probably be a poor choice simply because I wouldn''t utilize a lof ot what you pay for.

It''s hard to recommend one of the three without knowing your needs, budget, and potential ROI. If you''re learning on your own, probably start with 3DS Max - most of the skills you learn using it will be transferrable to either LightWave or Maya - you''ll still have to learn each program, but a lot of the basic concepts are the same, and 3DS Max is the cheapest and the easiest to find tutorials and utilities for.

But, if money''s no object, buy and learn Maya - at very least you''ll be the envy of every creative Geek on the playground, and it''s a scarcer skill, making you more marketable once you get your foot into the biz.